Articles – Definite & Indefinite
What are articles?
An article is a word placed before a noun to show whether the noun refers to a particular person, animal, place, thing, event, or idea, or whether the noun refers to an unspecified person, thing, or idea. Articles are words such as ‘the’, ‘a’ and ‘an’.
Example:
- I have the dictionary > a specified dictionary
- I have a dictionary > an unspecified dictionary
Definite Articles
The definite articles indicates that the speaker is referring to either a specific noun or to a class of nouns in a general sense. The English definite article, the, has four equivalent forms in French: la, le, l’ and les, depending on the gender and number of the noun as well as what letter it begins with.
Please note, le or la change to l’ before a noun beginning in a vowel or an h (the h is silent in French).
| Gender | Singular | Plural |
|---|---|---|
| Masculine | le livre
l’étudiant |
les livres
les étudiants |
| Feminine | la classe
l’étudiante |
les classes
les étudiantes |
Indefinite Articles
The indefinite article indicates that the speaker is referring to either an unspecific noun or to one/some of something. In English we have the indefinite article a and an. In the plural we say eithersome, any or nothing at all. In French, you choose from un, une and des, depending on whether the noun is masculine or feminine, and singular or plural.
| Gender | Singular | Plural |
|---|---|---|
| Masculine | un livre | des livres |
| Feminine | une craie | des craies |
Tip: When learning new vocabulary, make your vocabulary lists with a definite or indefinite article for each noun. This will help you learn the gender of each noun along with the word itself